Kurukshetra University Kurukshetra
(Established by the State Legislature Act XII of 1956)
(‘A++’ Grade, NAAC Accredited)
Scheme, Syllabus and Course of Reading for M.A. (Previous) English
Examination as per ratio of Internal & External Assessment 30:70
for the Students of Centre for Distance and Online Education and all Open
w.e.f. July-August 2023 in Phased Manner
Course Nomenclature of Paper Max. External Internal Exam.
Code Marks Marks Assessment Duration
Paper-I Literature in English: 1550-1660 100 70 30 03 Hours
Paper-II Literature in English: 1660-1798 100 70 30 03 Hours
Paper-III Literature in English: 1798-1914 100 70 30 03 Hours
Paper-IV Literature in English: 1914-2000 100 70 30 03 Hours
Paper-V Study of A Genre: Fiction 100 70 30 03 Hours
1
PAPER-I: LITERATURE IN ENGLISH, 1550-1660
Total Marks: 100
External Marks: 70
Internal Assessment: 30
Time: 3 hours
Note: (To be printed in the question paper)
1. Besides question No. 1, which is compulsory, a candidate shall choose one
question from each of four units, attempting five questions in all.
2. Each of the 5 questions carries 14 Marks.
Note for Paper-Setters:
1. The paper-setter will set 9 questions in all.
2. Question No. 1 shall consist of four short answer type questions (one from
each of the prescribed units). Each of the answers should be of about 100-
150 words. There will be no internal choice in the question.
3. Two questions (one from each text/author) will be set from each unit.
Unit-1
Philip Sidney: The following Sonnets from Astrophel and Stella are prescribed:
“Loving in truth, and fain in verse my love to show”,
"Not at first sight, nor with a dribbed shot",
“Vertue alas, now let me take some rest",
"It is most true, that eyes are formed to serve",
"Reason, in faith thou art well serv'd, that still",
"Alas have I not paine enough my friend",
“You that do search for every purling spring”,
"Your words my friend (right healthful Caustiks) blame"
“Because I oft, in dark abstracted guise”,
"This night while sleep begins with heavy Wings",
"Stella oft sees the Very face of Woe",
"No more, my dear, no more these counsels trie”
“Desire, though my old companion art”.
John Donne: The following poems from The Metaphysical Poets. ed. Helen Gardner
(Penguin) are prescribed:. “The Flea”, The Good Morrow", "Song: Go
and Catch a Falling Star", "The Sun Rising", "The Canonization", "A
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Valediction: Forbidding Mourning", “The Extasie", "Batter My Heart:
Three Person’d God", “Loves Growth”, “Holy Sonnet: Since She
Whome I Loved, Hath Payed Her Last Debt”.
Unit-2
(I) Christopher Marlowe: Doctor Faustus
(II) William Shakespeare: Hamlet
Unit-3
(I) William Shakespeare: Twelfth Night
(II) John Webstar: The Duchess of Malfi
Unit-4
(I) John Milton: Paradise Lost, Book-I
(II) Francis Bacon: “Of Unity in Religion". “Of Simulation and
Dissimulation”, "Of Friendship”, "Of Ambition”,
“Of Great Places", "Of Studies”, “Of Truth". “Of
Nature in Men”, “Of Love”, “Of Parents and
Children”
BOOKS RECOMMENDED
1. Reeves, James. A Short History of English Poetry.
2. Sanders, Andrew. The Short Oxford History of English Literature.
3. Ringler, William A., ed. The Poems of Sir Philip Sidney.
4. Charlton, H.B. Shakespearean Comedy.
5. Palmer, John Comic Characters in Shakespeare.
6. Barber, C.L. Creating Elizabethan Tragedy: The Theatre of Marlowe and Kyd.
7. Levin, Harry. Christopher Marlowe: The Overreacher.
8. Steans, J.B. Marlowe: A Critical Study.
9. Barker, Arthur E, ed. Milton: Modern Essays in Criticism.
10. Danielson, Daniss, ed. The Cambridge Companion to Milton.
11. Fredson, Bowers. Elizabethan Revenge Tragedy.
12. Una, Ellis The Jacobean Drama.
13. Irving, Ribner. Jacobean Tragedy: The Quest for Moral Order.
14. Bradley, A.C. Shakespearean Tragedy.
15. Harbage, Alfred, ed. Twentieth Century Views on Shakespeare.
16. Bennet, Joan. Five Metaphysical Poets.
17. Redpath, Theodore. The Songs and Sonnets of John Donne.
18. Miner, Earl. The Metaphysical Mode from Donne to Cowley
3
PAPER-II: LITERATURE IN ENGLISH 1660-1798
Total Marks: 100
External Marks: 70
Internal Assessment: 30
Time: 3 hours
Note: (To be printed in the question paper)
3. Besides question No. 1, which is compulsory, a candidate shall choose one
question from each of four units, attempting five questions in all.
4. Each of the 5 questions carries 14 Marks.
Note for Paper-Setters:
4. The paper-setter will set 9 questions in all.
5. Question No. 1 shall consist of four short answer type questions (one from
each of the prescribed units). Each of the answers should be of about 100-
150 words. There will be no internal choice in the question.
6. Two questions (one from each text/author) will be set from each unit.
Unit – 1
(i) John Dryden : Absalom and Achitophel
(ii) Alexander Pope: The Rape of the Lock
Unit – 2
(i) William Congreve: The Way of the World
(ii) Richard Sheridan: The School for Scandal
Unit – 3
(i) Daniel Defoe : Robinson Crusoe
(ii) Henry Fielding: Joseph Andrews
Unit – 4
(i) Joseph Addison & : “The Aims of the Spectator”,
Richard Steele “Female Orators”, “The Spectator’s Club”,
“Duelling”.
(ii) Samuel Johnson: “The Vanity of Human Wishes”,
“London”
BOOKS RECOMMENDED
1. Bonamee, Dobree. Restoration Comedy.
2. John, Lofties, ed. Restoration Drama: Modern Essays in Criticism.
3. Ian, Jack. Augustan Satire.
4. Hugh, Walker. Satire and Satirists.
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5. Ford, Boris, ed. From Dryden to Johnson, The New Pelican Guide to English
Literature, Vol.4.
6. Brower, Reuben Arthur. Alexander Pope: The Poetry of Illusion.
7. Hammond, Paul. John Dryden: A Literary Life.
8. Winn, James Anderson. John Dryden and His World.
9. Morris, Brian, ed. William Congreve.
10. Novak, Maximilian. William Congreve.
11. Ayling, Stanley. A Portrait of Sheridan.
12. Worth, Katharine. Sheridan and Goldsmith.
13. Lannering, J. Studies in the Prose Style of Joseph Addison.
14. Watt, Ian. The Rise of the Novel: Studies in Defoe, Richardson and Fielding.
15. Ellis, F.H., ed. Twentieth Century Interpretations of Robinson Crusoe.
16. Ford, Boris, ed. From Dryden to Johnson. The New Pelican Guide to English
Literature, Vo1. 4.
17. Rogers, Pat. Samuel Johnson.
18. Hudson, Nicholas. Samuel Johnson and Eighteenth Century.
19. Bloom, Edward. Addison and Steele: The Critical Heritage.
20. Battestin, Martin C and Ruth Battestin. Henry Fielding: A Life.
21. Rawson, Claude. Henry Fielding and the Augustun Ideal Under Stress
5
PAPER-III: LITERATURE IN ENGLISH 1798-1914
Total Marks: 100
External Marks: 70
Internal Assessment: 30
Time: 3 hours
Note: (To be printed in the question paper)
1. Besides question No.1, which is compulsory, a candidate shall choose one
question from each of four units, attempting five questions in all.
2. Each of the 5 questions carries 14 Marks.
Note for Paper-Setters:
1. The paper-setter will set 9 questions in all.
2. Question No. 1 shall consist of four short answer type questions (one from
each of the prescribed units). Each of the answers should be of about 100-
150 words. There will be no internal choice in the question.
3. Two questions (one from each text/author) will be set from each unit.
Unit – 1
(i) William Wordsworth: "To the Cuckoo", "The Solitary Reaper".
"Daffodils", "Tintern Abbey", "Odd on Intimations
of Immortality",
"Lucy Gray", "Simon Lee, The Old Huntsman".
"The Tables Turned".
(ii) John Keats: "On First Looking Into Champman's Homer",
"When I have Fears that I may Cease to Be",
"Ode to a Nightingale, "Ode on a Grecian Urn",
"Ode on Melancholy", "To Autumn", "To Psyche".
Unit-2
(i) Robert Browning: "Evelyn Hope",
"Love Among the Ruins",
“My Last Duchess”
"The Last Ride Together",
"A Grammarian's Funeral",
"Porphyria’s Lover”,
"Rabbi Ben Ezra",
"Meting at Night",
"The Lost Mistress",
(ii) Charles Dickens: Oliver Twist
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Unit- 3
(i) George Eliot: The Mill on the Floss
(ii) Thomas Hardy: Tess of the D 'Urbervilles
Unit – 4
(i) Bernard Shaw: Arms and the Man
(ii) Gustav Flaubert: Madame Bovary
BOOKS RECOMMENDED
1. Borwa, C.M. The Romantic Imagination.
2. Reeves, James. A Short History of English Poetry.
3. Abrams, M.H. English Romantic Poets: Modern Essays in Criticisma.
4. Batho, E. and B. Dobree. The Victorians and After 1830-1914.
5. Leavis, F.R. New Bearings in English Poetry.
6. Hartman, G.H. Wordsworth's Poetry. 1787-1834.
7. Bateson, F.W. Wordsworth: A Re-Interpretation.
8. Bate, Walter Jackson, ed. Keats.
9. Fraser,G.S. John Keats: Odes.
10. Ford, Borid, ed. The New Pelican Guide to English Literature Volumes 5 and 6.
11. Leavis, F.R. and Q.D. Leavis. Dickens: The Novelist.
12. Hall, Stephan, ed. Charles Dickens.
13. Creeger, George R., ed. George Eliot: A Collection of Critical Essays.
14. Stephen, Leslie. George Eliot.
15. Bloom, Harold and Munich, eds.: Robert Browning: A Collection of Critical Essays.
16. Batho, E. and B. Dobree. The Victorians and After 1830-1914.
17. Cecil, David. Early Victorian Novelists.
18. Kettle, Arnold. An Introduction to English Novel. Vol.1
19 Cecil, David. Hardy: The Novelist.
20. Kaufmann R.J., ed. G.B. Shaw.
21. Girand, Raymond, ed. Flaubert.
7
PAPER-IV: LITERATURE IN ENGLISH 1914-2000
Total Marks: 100
External Marks: 70
Internal Assessment: 30
Time: 3 hours
Note: (To be printed in the question paper)
1. Besides question No.1, which is compulsory, a candidate shall choose one
question from each of four units, attempting five questions in all.
2. Each of the 5 questions carries 14 marks.
Note for Paper-Setters:
1. The paper setter will set 9 questions in all.
2. Questions No.1 shall consist of four short answer type questions (one from
each of the four prescribed units). Each of the answers should be of about
100-150 words. There will be no internal choice in this question.
3. Two questions (one from each text/author) will be set from each unit.
Unit-1
(i) T.S. Eliot: The Waste Land
(i) Kingsley Amis: Lucky Jim
Unit-2
(i) Philip Larkin: “No road”, “Poetry of Departures”,
“Going, Going, “Deceptions”, “Next Please”,
“If My Darling”, “Reasons for Attendance”,
“Wedding Wind”, “Church Going”, “The Old
Fools”.
“Ambulances”, “Whitsun Weddings”.
(ii) Albert Camus: The Outsider
Unit-3
(i) E.M. Forster: A Passage to India
(ii) R.K. Narayan: The Guide
Unit-4
(i) Nissim Ezekiel: “Night of the Scorpion”
“Goodbye Party for Miss Pushpa TS”,
“The Patriot”,
“The Visitor”,
“Poet, Lover, Birdwatcher”,
“Enterprise”,
“Philosophy”,
“Background, Casually”,
“Poem of Separation”,
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(ii) Arthur Miller : Death of a Salesman
BOOKS RECOMMENDED
1. Cox, C.B. and Arnold P.Hinchlife, eds. T.S.Eliot: The Waste Land.
2. Martin, Jay, ed. A Collection of Critical Essays on The Waste Land.
3. Reagen, Stephen, ed. Philip Larkin.
4. King, Bruce. Three Indian Poets
5. Gransden, K.W. E.M.Forster
6. Bradbury, Malcolm, ed. Forster: A Collection of Critical Essays.
7. Show, Peter Inside Lucky Jim.
8. Bloom, Harold and Munich, eds.: Robert Browning: A Collection of Critical
Essays.
9. Batho, E.and B, Dobree. The Victorians and After1830-1914.
10. Cecil, David. Early Victorian Novelists.
11. Kettle, Arnold. An Introduction to English Novel. Vol.1
12. Cecil, David. Hardy: The Novelist.
13. Kaufmann R.J., ed. G.B.Shaw
14. Girand, Raymand, ed. Flaubert.
9
PAPER-V: STUDY OF A GENRE: FICTION
Total Marks: 100
External Marks: 70
Internal Assessment: 30
Time: 3 hours
Note: (To be printed in the question paper)
1. Besides question no. 1, which is compulsory, a candidate shall choose one
question from each of four units, attempting five questions in all.
2. Each of the 5 questions carries 14 Marks.
Note for Paper- Setters:
1. The paper setter will set 9 questions in all.
2. Question No. I shall consist of four short answer type questions (one from
each of the of the prescribed units). Each of the answers should be of about
100-150 words. There will be no internal choice in the question.
3. Two questions (one from each text/ author) will be set from each unit
Unit-1
(i) E.M. Forster: Aspects of the Novel
(ii) Joseph Conrad: Heart of Darkness
Unit-2
(i) Jane Austen: Pride and Prejudice
(ii) Nathaniel Hawthorne: The Scarlet Letter
Unit-3
(i) James Joyce: A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
(ii) D.H. Lawrence: Sons and Lovers
Unit-4
(i) V.S. Naipaul: A House for Mr. Biswas
(ii) Raja Rao: Kanthapura
BOOKS RECOMMENDED
1. Kettle, Arold, An Introduction to the English Novel Vol. I.
2. Wright, Andrew H. Jane Austen’s Novels.
3. Watt, Ian, ed. Jane Austen.
4. Gansden, K.W.E.M. Forster.
5. Bradbury, Malcolm, ed. Foster: A Collection of Critical Essay.
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6. Waggoner, Hyatt H. Hawthorne: A Critical Study.
7. Atsridge, Derek, ed. The Cambridge Companion to Joyce.
8. Fairhall, James. James Joyce and the Question of History.
9. Tredell, Nicolas. Joseph Conrad: Hart of Darkness.
10. Daiches, David. The Novel and the Modern World.
11. Beal, Anthony. D.H. Lawrence.
12. Feder,___________ Naipaul Truth.
13. Paolo, Pier. The Fiction of Raja Rao.
14. Naik, M.K. Raja Rao.
15. Hamner, Robert D. Critical Perspectives on V.S. Naipaul.
16. Mustafa, _____________ V.S. Naipaul.
17. Sharma, S.D. ed. Aspects of the Novel.
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